I always thought Zuiko lenses
presents very good value to their users and this Zuiko zoom is another typical example.
At the time, most manufacturers were offering tele-zoom lenses which usually came
with a popular range falls between 80-200 or 70-210mm, Olympus has created another
zoom with an rather uncustomary zoom range from 65-200mm during a period probably
between* 1984/1986. Although odd on papers but it is
very practical as the wide-end of its zoom approaches filed of view close to standard
vision at 37°
and its 3.07X zoom ratio is the
widest in its class. Come to think of it, actually it is one of its kind in an all
OM custom essence but who bothers as long as we consumers benefits from its thoughtful
design ? So this "new" zoom range remains as an Olympus' proprietary
original design and there is no comparing optic with similar zoom range being offered
thus far.

* There are some inconsistency
relating to actual period of introduction of this lense - I have a few OM literature
where an 04/84 publication indicates this Zuiko zoom was in the lense group, an OM-4
publication in 07/85 does not mentioned it at the lens chart section but an OM system
catalogue has a picture of it but not being mentioned at the Lense-chart section
while the last copy of the OM system catalogue in 10/92, there are only 4 remaining
Zuiko zooms left in its lenss chart section (the remaining ones are the S.Zuiko
AUTO zoom 35-70mm f/3.5~4.5,
Zuiko
AUTO zoom 35-70mm f/3.6,
S.Zuiko
AUTO zoom 35-105mm f/3.5~4.5,
Zuiko
AUTO zoom 50-250mm f/5.0).
But a more believing year of introduction was 1984.

Well, up to the early '90 as this lense is
one of the two remaining tele-zoom Olympus was still offering in their Zuiko lineup,
if it
can still such sustaining power cruising through evolution
in lense development all these years - it must have its own strength, right ? Yes.
first of all, this highly portable one touch-zoom has a very practical focal length,
its single zoom and focusing control is easy and quick to use, it has a fairly fast
aperture as compared with other Zuiko tele-zooms in its class and lastly, it delivers
more than acceptable optical performance that one would expect it to be with just
a modest price it calls. * A used, mint condition unit at approx.
between USD220.00 - USD250.00.*Source: MacBroom's Camera Blue Book. Picture at left shown
how this lense is compared to a Zuiko
AUTO zoom 85-250mm f/5.0 in physical
form.

As this lense was considered as among
the new generation of MF Zuiko zoom lenses introduced at the time which uses
prevailing zoom lense design characterized by one-touch zoom/focusing, a moderarely
fast maximum aperture, compact/lightweight and incorporating a macrofocus capability;
similarly, this lovely Zuiko zoom also offers such similar basic essential features
to fulfill needs of OM photographers. Basically, the main threat of Olympus actually
came from third party manufacturers and the Company just has to react to competitions
in ensuring OM users still sticking onto an OM label. The clear advantage of this
lense is, naturally, it has a longer zoom range than comparing optics while it also
packs all basic features one would expect in a high quality zoom lense would deliver.

The macrofocus is set at the 200mm
furthest end of the zoom setting. The lense basic configuration only permits it to
close focus at 1.2m
(4.0 ft), it can narrow down the
minimum focusing distance to just 0.85m
while a remarkable reproduction
ratio of 1:3 can be achieved. The thoughtful macrofocus function shows how Olympus
has taken minor things in detailed consideration as unlike many other comparing zoom
with similar feature, Olympus has designed the mechanism to function at 200mm and
only photographers who often works at close focus photography will appreciate such
design as firstly, it allows a more comfortable working distance and equally important
is the natural perspective such focal length can provide to an eventual capture image.
Well, the close focus capability adds another layer to its already impressive lists
of features and probably now you can understand why this Zuiko zoom can still find
itself a solid footing amidst in the ever-changing market place. Note:
Olympus warns the depth of field scales and infrared index canot be used as reference
once you are in macrofocus mode.

At 760g, this lense is not
entirely be considered as lightweight and almost comparable to its 50-250mm
f/5.0 MACRO
counterpart in weight. The diaphragm stop down to a minimum aperture of f/32 which
is effectively useful in many situations, in particular when operating at its Macro
setting for extended depth of field control. Further, one touch zoom offers a better
visual reference in relation to depth of field scales and this lense provides only
two indicative settings, f/32 and f/16 along with an red-coloured infrared index.

Special
thanks to:
Gregory
P. Logiodice, Bob Gries, Erwin Voogt, Joel Wilcox, Rick
Oleson, Simon Evan and many others for granting permissions to use their images
of either lenses, cameras and own pictures appeared in this Zuiko website.

Credit: My old time buddy,
Ahmad
Ikram,
Dr of Rubber Research Institute (RRI), Malaysia
who shares the same passion with me and also lending his OM-1n, OM-4 and the Motor
Drive 1 to me for preparing some images in this site; Mark Dapoz <md@dementia.org>for reminding
some broken links; Mr Poon of Foto Poon, Ipoh, Mr Richard, Ampang Park,
MrLim and Miss Jenny of Foto Edar for their generosity for
their OM1(n), OM2n camera and some Zuiko lenses. Mr Hans van Veluwen for
mistakenly using some content earlier from his OM website; J Sorensen
for providing some useful images to rectify some technical "flaws"; Mr
Gen Holst for helping during the early stages of development of this OM site;
Mr KKLow for some of his earlier images on the OM-1appeared in this website;
Miss Wati and Mirza for helping me
to convert this Operation Manual into a HTML format. MrMCLau for rectifying
some mistakes made on the earlier preview sites. A personal tribute to the creator
of the OM system and also a site dedicated to all the fans of Olympuses and Zuiko
Optics worldwide. Some of the content and images appeared in this site were scanned
from OM official marketing leaflets, brochures and instruction manual(s) for educational
purposes. Olympus is a registered trade name of Olympus Optical Inc., Japan. Site
created 'unfortunately again with an IMac.